Hanshi Malcolm Phipps

Chief Instructor/ExaminerMalcolm Phipps Sensei 8th Dan (Hanshi)

Malcolm Phipps is an 8th Dan in
Shotokan Karate and is the Chief Instructor internationally to Seishinkai
Shotokan Karate International. After his school years he spent ten years in
the Royal Navy where he already had become a prominent footballer playing for
the RN throughout the world and for local amateur teams in Hertfordshire. He
left the RN in 1968 and then worked in London for a Merchant Bank and
Commodity Brokers respectively. In the early 1970s he felt he needed a new
challenge and, following up an advert in his local paper, went along to
witness his first actual Karate lesson. He was extremely impressed with the
discipline involved and the very next lesson became part of the class. His
original club was based in Hemel Hempstead, which started out as a JKA club
but then became a part of Shotokan Karate International (SKI) with Kanazawa
Sensei. He was hooked by this new way of life and trained hard passing his
grades up to Shodan with Kanazawa Sensei and Asano Sensei. Sadly, and through
no fault of his own, a split happened in his local club and he found himself
having to travel nearly 30 miles twice weekly to train with his sensei.
Working in London this was unacceptable and he had to look for a new
Association to join. A good friend of his put him in the path of the Amateur
Shotokan Karate Association (ASKA) where again he spent many happy years.
Through a difference of opinion between certain traditional aspects within
this group he left to form his own Association, Seishinkai Shotokan Karate in
1984. In 1995 the decision was made to become an international group with
clubs in the UK, USA, India and Kazakhstan, and therefore SSKI came to be.
Malcolm has trained in Shotokan Karate now for over 42 years and has actually
taught for well over 38 years and thousands of Karateka have passed through
his extremely capable hands.

In competition Karate he has had
numerous successes including many World, European and National Champions. In
traditional Shotokan Karate his black–belts are, without doubt, and grade for
grade, amongst the very finest. He is one of the top and most respected
Karate teachers in Europe today. He is a National Grading Officer and a
Senior National Coach (NCF) and is also one of England’s top Nunchaku (rice
flails) exponents and teaches this Art regularly in his Nunchaku Association
ETNA (English Traditional Nunchaku Association), where again he is the
founder and Chief Instructor.

He was awarded Sports Personality
of the Year for the county of West Hertfordshire in 1985 and has been
runner–up on a couple of other occasions.

Malcolm is also an accomplished
author and has had ten books published to–date. Four of these books are on
the Martial arts (Uchi Deshi and the Master, The Ah So! Stories, The Little
Book of Seishinkai and Nunchaku) and three novels: Wild Oats in Cornwall, The
ConEquest and Wild Oats. His autobiography, Out of the Tigers Mouth, was
published in December 2009. Malcolm is also a poet and has had two books on
poetry published: I Pondered Lonely as a Cloud! and I Pondered Lonely as A
Cloud, Once More! The royalty on both books was sent to the NSPCC and Save
the Children respectively.

He has appeared on English
National TV in such programmes as Michael Aspel’s Six O’Clock Show,
Afternoon Plus with Mary Parkinson, Thames News with the late Andrew Gardner
and Anglia Sport and was interviewed live on BBC Radio by ex–Blue Peter presenter,
Simon Groom. The Association also appeared on the BBC’s top children’s
programme, Blue Peter, and also featured on the BBC TV News in 2005. He has
had numerous magazine articles published in Traditional Karate, Combat,
Fighting Arts International and Shotokan Karate Magazine and articles
published in the Daily Mail and Guardian UK national newspapers. He also has
his profile on Wikipedia.

Malcolm is a highly respected and
accomplished instructor who has been training in Shotokan Karate for over 42
years and holds the following positions:

• Chief Instructor, Founder and
Examiner to SSKI (Seishinkai Shotokan Karate International)
• Chief Instructor, Founder and Examiner to ETNA (English Traditional
Nunchaku Association)
• Chairman SSKI Executive and Technical Committees
• SSKI National Team Manager
• Founding Fellow of ISKS (International Shotokan–ryu Karate–do Shihankai)
• UK Director of the World Martial Arts Hall of Fame
• Member of the UK Combat Hall of Fame
• Member of the USA Hall of Fame
• Member of the Global Martial Arts Hall of Fame
• Awarded 8th Dan and the title of Hanshi in September 2011 by the ISKS &
SSKI Executive Committees